This invention relates to a floating device connected to a ship, for towing a submerged member with a lateral shift thereof with respect to the ship route.
This device can be used for example in seismic prospecting at sea when it is desired to draw several transmitting sources associated to a receiver, or a transmitting source associated to several receivers, or several transmitting sources associated to several receivers, behind a ship, along parallel directions sufficiently spaced apart from one another. In this case, each source is drawn by a device according to the invention, each device being connected to the ship.
The device of the invention essentially comprises at least two parallel deflectors secured to a floating member. Both of these deflectors consist for example of a series of parallel paddles so oriented as to extend transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the device and secured on a common support member at front and rear ends thereof. The floating member may consist of a floating platform at the ends of which are secured parallel deflectors. It may also consist of several floating pipes rigidly connected to one another.
Such a device, connected, on the one hand, to a ship, and, on the other hand, to a submerged member, produces a lateral shift of the latter while forming an assembly of high route stability and maintaining said member at a constant distance from the towing ship, irrespective of the speed variations thereof. It also enables to maintain the submerged member at a known depth and to avoid its laying down on the bottom when the ship stops.
Three embodiments of the device will be described with more details with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: